How Direct Mail Affects Your SEO

November 17, 2015

At first glance, direct mail marketing and SEO have absolutely nothing in common.

One relies on postal mail and physical letters and postcards; the other is the foundation of digital marketing. Even when you combine digital and direct mail marketing techniques, it seems unlikely that your catalogs and letters would possibly affect search engine optimization. If you’re still laboring under this assumption, get ready to have your mind blown.

Boost Searches for Your Brand

If consumers don’t know to look for your company online, your SEO doesn’t really help much anyway, does it? By introducing yourself through direct mail, you put your company on prospects’ radars. Include the URL for your company, and then watch the searches skyrocket. The more relevant Google thinks your site is, the more likely you’ll be to show up higher in the search rankings. Whether customers find your website through a Google search or by entering your exact address, search engines give you points for relevance.

Even the USPS is on board with this tactic. The very word in postal mail suggests sending postcards to customers and then following up with an email or tweet to the recipient on the day the mail should arrive. If your message on the postcard and in your digital touch both suggest visiting your website, you can bet those potential customers will comply.

It all starts with an introduction.

Benefit from Pay-Per-Click

Your brand introduction could lead people directly to your website, but sometimes it won’t. Sometimes the mail piece will be set aside and forgotten for a while. That doesn’t mean those recipients won’t think of your company, though, even if your postcard found its way to the trash.

The next time those recipients think of your company, products, or services, they may head straight to a search engine to locate you online. A well-constructed pay-per-click campaign could ensure that your brand shows up before any of your competitors.

Keep in mind that other companies like yours will use the same keywords you will. It’s a bidding system that often renders smaller businesses helpless when they can’t afford to beat the big guys. You have to bid on search terms that your competitors are less likely to use, and this is where direct mail becomes your PPC campaign’s best friend. By using terms you included in your direct mail pieces, you’ll be more likely to draw in searchers that find your ads before your competitors’ campaigns. You can tell those recipients exactly what to look for. Using similar designs on your landing pages and direct mail pieces tells those potential customers that they’ve found the right place.

There are quite a few hoops to jump through when optimizing your website for search engines. Any help you can give through other marketing techniques will only serve to boost your rankings. That’s why integrating your direct mail and digital marketing techniques is so important. If you’re still on the fence about using direct mail in your marketing efforts, give us a call. We’ll show you how print marketing will grow your business.